Identified 'Digital Gyodoso' Operators One After Another Go Underwater

Police: Some Operators of Digital Gyodoso Suspects All Missing... Multi-Angle Tracking Underway
Site Access Blocked Domestically and Overseas
Broadcasting Review Committee 'Decision Deferred'

[Asia Economy Reporter Song Seung-yoon] The police have identified some of the operators of the website 'Digital Prison,' which arbitrarily discloses the personal information of criminals and others, but these individuals are believed to have gone into hiding or are unreachable. The police have identified some of the Digital Prison operators and requested cooperation from Interpol in a foreign country based on their access records. The Daegu Metropolitan Police Agency's Cyber Investigation Unit has been handling the investigation related to Digital Prison since July.

According to the police on the 11th, all identified operators are currently in hiding, and none of them have been confirmed to be staying in South Korea. Along with the Interpol wanted notices, the police are narrowing the investigation by requesting the invalidation of the passports of those whose identities have been confirmed. The police are conducting a multifaceted investigation, believing that an individual who previously operated several personal information disclosure accounts on social networking services (SNS) such as the Instagram account 'nbunbang' is the same person as the Digital Prison operators. The owner of this account has previously admitted in media interviews that they established the Digital Prison website.

After public opinion worsened recently regarding Digital Prison, access to the site was blocked. It has been confirmed that the site is inaccessible not only in South Korea but also in other countries such as the United States and Australia.

Digital Prison, born out of public distrust in judicial institutions, had received tacit public support fueled by nationwide outrage over a series of 'Nth Room incidents.' However, as innocent victims emerged due to the disclosure of personal information, the justification for judging criminals through private sanctions has been lost.

Recently, following the disclosure of personal information on Digital Prison, a Korea University student who claimed innocence took an extreme step, and there was even a case where the personal information of a medical school professor at a university in the Seoul metropolitan area was disclosed on the grounds of 'attempting to purchase sexually exploitative materials.' Police investigations revealed that the professor was unrelated to the incident, contrary to the information posted on Digital Prison. Additionally, there have been cases where individuals with the same name were mistakenly identified as criminals and had their personal information disclosed. Personal information has also been indiscriminately posted simply because of social controversy, despite no connection to crimes. A representative example is the posting of personal information of judges, including Judge Kang Young-soo, who refused the extradition of Son Jung-woo, the operator of the child sexual exploitation site 'Welcome to Video (W2V).'

This is not the first time a self-proclaimed 'vigilante group' with the nature of private sanctions has appeared. In the past, expos? accounts named 'Gangnam Patch' and 'Hannam Patch' indiscriminately disclosed personal information of ordinary people, causing controversy. At that time, there were also several innocent victims. The operator of Gangnam Patch was sentenced to 10 months in prison by the court, and based on this case, it is highly likely that the Digital Prison operators will also be punished if caught.

There have been cases where private sanctions by civilians were recognized as serving the public interest. One example is the operator of 'Bad Fathers,' who disclosed the personal information of parents who failed to pay child support and was acquitted after being charged with defamation. The information disclosed by Bad Fathers was recognized as being for a 'public interest' purpose without intent to defame, but the majority opinion views Digital Prison as having a clear intent to defame.

Meanwhile, the Korea Communications Standards Commission held a Communications Review Subcommittee meeting the day before and decided to 'defer resolution' on Digital Prison, citing the current inaccessibility of the site and other factors.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.